Sassoon Dock

Sassoon Dock in Colaba is the oldest wet dock in Mumbai, built in 1875 by Albert Abdullah David Sassoon of the Baghdadi Jewish merchant dynasty and one of the first commercial docks in western India open to the public. It remains a working fish harbour and the beating heart of the city's seafood trade: from around 5AM the trawlers come alongside and crews unload crates of pomfret, Bombay duck, prawns, mackerel and crab onto the quay, where Koli women in bright saris run the auctions with a speed and volume that few visitors forget. The scene is loud, wet, pungent and utterly unstaged, a survival of the fishing economy that predates every colonial monument in the city. In recent years the dock has also hosted large-scale public art projects that covered its warehouses in murals, drawing a new audience to a place most tourists never see. Because the dock is a functioning port under authority control, photography rules can change and are sometimes restricted, and permission should be sought rather than assumed; footwear that can get wet and dirty is essential, as the quay is permanently slick with ice melt and fish scales. A visit lasts about an hour and pairs naturally with a walk up Colaba Causeway once the morning trade is done. It is one of the few places in South Mumbai where the city's maritime working life is visible at close range.